A recent development in the field of electro-mechanics has been the miniaturization of various mechanical devices. Typical of such devices are tiny gears, levers, and valves. These "micro-mechanical" devices are manufactured using integrated circuit techniques, often together with electrical control circuitry. Common applications include accelerometers, pressure sensors, and actuators. As another example, spatial light modulators can be configured from micro-mechanical pixels.
One type of micro-mechanical spatial light modulator is a digital micro-mirror device (DMD), sometimes referred to as a deformable mirror device. The DMD has an array of hundreds or thousands of tiny tilting mirrors. Light incident on the DMD is selectively reflected or not reflected from each mirror to an image plane, to form images. To permit the mirrors to tilt, each is attached to one or more hinges mounted on support posts, and spaced by means of an air gap over underlying control circuitry. The control circuitry provides electrostatic forces, which cause each mirror to selectively tilt.
DMDs have various designs, most of which include the fabrication of support posts to which the hinges are attached. Fabrication of the support posts has been accomplished with various approaches. One approach is to etch vias in a layer of spacer material. Metal is then deposited into the vias to coat each via's inner surface, resulting in a hollow metal post. A problem with this method is that it is difficult to uniformly coat the via's inner surface. In the terminology of silicon processing, good "step coverage" of the depositing material is difficult to achieve, and the coating inside the vias will typically have aberrations where the layer is very thin. Poor step coverage is an increasing problem as the aspect ratio of the vias increases. As a result, the support posts are mechanically weak.